The Little Things
by DreamingCerulean
Summary: Telling someone goodbye when you aren't ready to let them go is hard enough. Realizing that you left them in the past, and that have to move on without them is even harder. Short one-shot, where Annabeth learns to live again after the unthinkable happens.


**A/N: Hello everyone! This is a short one-shot I've been thinking of writing for a while.**

 **Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians.**

Annabeth's POV

It had been one year and two months since the Event.

It had only been a single year, when Annabeth, staring uselessly at her physics homework for class, suddenly realized that she couldn't recall Percy's exact eye color.

At one point in her life, she would have been able to pick out the sea green shade easily, picturing the color and shine of his eyes when he was happy as if the color had been burned into the back of her eyelids.

While she had thought of him every single day since the Event, this was the first moment that she realized that her memory of him was fading. She had known that as time went on, she would forget a couple of things, but she hadn't expected it to happen so quickly.

She stared up at the empty blue sky outside, desperately trying to force herself to imagine the shade. It had been so long since she had seen it.

After a couple of minutes, when she still couldn't remember the beautiful green shade, she staggered up from the couch, stumbling over to her bedroom. She crashed to her knees by the bedside and pulled out a dusty box from underneath.

Ages ago, a couple of days after the Event, she had packed away every photo she had, trying to get rid of the painful ache that came with seeing the happy face of someone she had left behind. Now, she wished that she had kept them out for just a little while longer. Maybe she wouldn't have forgotten.

Annabeth pulled out all of the pictures, slowly, soaking in the smiles of the past. In a couple of the photos, she and Percy stood side by side, making goofy faces at the camera. Others were natural shots, taken without the other noticing.

In one of them, Percy faced the camera with his signature lopsided smirk, a calm ocean in the background behind him. Annabeth pulled the picture closer to her face, drinking in every detail she could see.

The familiar ache of heartbreak was welling up inside her again, reminding her painfully of why she packed the photos away in the first place, but Annabeth ignored it. It couldn't hurt her to just look through all the photos for a little while longer, to spend a couple more minutes remembering just what exactly she had lost that cold, dark night.

For the rest of the evening, Annabeth flipped through old pictures and happy memories, almost forgetting the steady flow of tears that dripped down her face. Maybe, if she looked hard enough, she could lose herself in the past she missed so much, and maybe, she could forget that this present timeline even existed at all.

* * *

It had been one year and five months since the Event.

Annabeth was huddled on their- no, her bed, wrapped up in one of Percy's old hoodies. This wasn't a new thing for her to do. In the days after the Event, she had barely moved away from this spot, instead spending her time lying in the warmth and pretending that he was there with her.

The jacket smelled exactly like him. It reminded her of a warm summer day spent on the beach, full of laughter and happiness.

She took a deep breath, hoping to find another whiff of the sea. She didn't find anything. Annabeth frowned slightly, before shoving her face deep into the fabric and taking another breath.

Silently, she prayed that there was still something left. But all she could smell was the sharp lemon of her own shampoo. She sat up in the bed, holding the soft, worn fabric like it was a lifeline. This had been Percy's favorite hoodie, and now any evidence that he had worn this was gone. Destroyed by her.

Annabeth felt another wave of tears rising up. This was yet another reminder that Percy was gone, forever. A reminder she had never wanted to hear.

* * *

It had been two years and four months since the Event.

Annabeth stood alone in the small bakery near her apartment, trying to hold back her emotions. There was a small blue birthday cake on a pedestal in the display window.

She couldn't help but stare at it, feeling slightly overwhelmed.

Originally, she had came here to pick up the cake for Piper's surprise birthday party, but the thought of celebrating was suddenly the furthest thing from her mind.

All she could think of was Percy, and his love for blue food. The way he used to pick out the blue jelly beans from the candy bag, or always buy blue tortilla chips when they were headed to the beach. The way he used to bring her some of Sally's blue chocolate chip cookies, even though they were his absolute favorite. The blue cake that she and Tyson had baked for him on his sixteenth birthday, when she had finally confessed her feelings to him.

"Miss?" The baker asked, startling her from her thoughts. "Do you need anything?"

Annabeth glanced away from the cake, swallowing heavily. "No," she said. "Just looking."

The baker nodded and returned to his work behind the counter. Annabeth immediately turned tail and walked out of the store, leaning against the wall outside and staring at the fluffy white clouds high up in the sky.

Why was this so hard?

After a couple of moments, Annabeth picked up all of her broken pieces, and went back inside the store.

She avoided looking down at the blue cake when she asked for her order, instead trying to focus on how happy Piper would be when she showed her the cake.

* * *

It had been three years and six months since the Event.

Annabeth was sitting on a bench in the park next to Connor, a boy from her work. He had invited her out on a date, and after much pressuring from Piper and Hazel, she had accepted. Surprisingly, she was actually enjoying herself.

They had just come back from a lunch date, and were quietly watching a couple of kids run around in the playground.

It was really nice. She felt peaceful, for the first time in a long while.

Another moment passed by, before a sudden thought struck her, opening the floodgates of regret.

What was she doing here? She had been dedicated to Percy. She loved Percy. She couldn't be falling for anyone else. What would he say when she finally made it to the underworld and saw him again?

Annabeth froze, withdrawing into herself.

But the rational part of her mind protested. Those thoughts wasn't true. Percy had told her, years ago, that it was okay to move on. He had told her that back when there was rain everywhere and his blood was soaking into the ground and no one was coming no matter how desperately she screamed for help and -

No.

It was okay.

She was okay.

She wasn't there anymore, and everything was alright.

Annabeth slowly came back to the present, quietly listening to Connor talk about how excited he was for their upcoming engineering project.

* * *

It had been three years and eleven months since the Event.

Annabeth had been walking home through the busy streets of New York when she first heard it.

She stopped where she was, ignoring the grumble of several other civilians that had been forced to move around her. It had sounded like someone had called her name, but the voice had been something straight out of the past.

It almost sounded like… It couldn't be…

She turned around, straining her neck to see above the crowd. Even if it wasn't possible, she could have sworn that she had heard his voice.

It had been so long. She had almost completely forgotten what he had sounded like, after all this time. She could barely remember the way he spoke, and the exact ups and downs of his voice.

The way he sounded when he was about to make a terrible pun.

The way he sounded when he was trying to convince her to do something with him.

The way he sounded when he found something new and was trying to get her attention.

She missed his voice so much.

His had been a calming, deep voice, that had both grounded her in reality and reminded her of what she loved most in the world.

She couldn't see anyone, no matter how hard she looked. It had been a cruel mental trick, or perhaps the voice of another person passing by.

Annabeth turned back into the crowd, blinking away the water in her eyes. She had to stop hoping that a miracle would happen. Holding onto false hope only hurt her even more.

* * *

It had been five years and one month since the Event.

Annabeth stood on the empty beach at Camp Half-Blood, in front of the little memorial for Percy that Chiron had made several years ago.

"Hey Percy," Annabeth whispered, kneeling down in the sand. "Long time no see, huh."

There was silence.

"There's someone I want you to meet," She said after a moment. Carefully, she brought up the small bundle that she had been carrying protectively, and pushed some extra cloth away from the baby's face. "This is Eva. She was born last month, on July 17th."

Eva giggled quietly, swinging her arms around happily.

Annabeth paused again. "This'll be my last visit for a while. We're headed out to the west coast again, for good. I hate to leave, but Connor and I think it'll be a good change. There are so many more opportunities out west for us, and my family will be there to help with the kids if we need it," she said. "But don't worry. We'll come back every now and then to visit. I wouldn't dream of leaving Camp forever."

She stood up, brushing some of the sand off of her knees. "I'll miss you, Seaweed Brain. See you again soon."

Another moment passed before Annabeth turned away. She walked through Camp for a final time, before making her way out to the front road. Conner was waiting in the car on the other side.

"Ready?" He asked. "Here we go."

Annabeth said nothing. She watched Thalia's Pine disappear in the rear view mirror, before turning her gaze back onto the future ahead of her.

 **A/N: Thank you for reading, and please review!**

 **~DreamingCerulean**

 **Published: September 7th, 2018**


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